signs the grant of lands under water to the Astoria Light, Heat, and Power Company of New York City, giving reasons for his action.

December 29.-The Naval Construction Board adopts plans for three new battleships, to be called the Georgia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, which will be equal to any similar craft afloat, having a displacement of 14,000 tons and a speed of 19 knots....The receipts at the Havana custom-house are $100,500, the largest in the history of Cuba.

December 30.-Governor-General Wood announces his Cuban cabinet as follows: Secretary of State and Government, Diego Tamayo; Secretary of Justice, Luis Esterez; Secretary of Instruction, Juan B. Hernandez; Secretary of Finance, Enrique Varona; Secretary of Public Works, José R. Villaton; Secretary of Agriculture, Ruiz Rivera.

January 2.-The Kentucky Legislature meets and a contest for the governorship is begun by Senator Goebel. January 3.-President McKinley nominates Brig.Gen. John C. Bates to be major-general of volunteers; Brig.-Gen. Loyd Wheaton to be major-general of volunteers by brevet; and Col. S. B. M. Young, Lieut.-Col. Arthur MacArthur, and Lieut.-Col. William Ludlow to be brigadier-generals.... The New York Legislature meets....Governor-General Wood issues an order releasing 40 prisoners unjustly detained in Cuban jails.

January 4.-Governor Crane, of Massachusetts, is inaugurated.

January 5.-Col. S. M. Sawtelle, Tenth Cavalry, succeeds General Wood in command of the military department of Santiago and Puerto Principe.

January 6.-The Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections begins the taking of testimony on the bribery charges against Senator Clark, of Montana.

January 8.-George K. Nash is inaugurated governor of Ohio.

January 10.-Secretary Gage's letter in reply to the request of Congress for information regarding deposits of public funds in certain national banks and the sale of the New York custom-house is made public....John Walter Smith is inaugurated governor of Maryland.

January 11.-Gov. Leslie M. Shaw is inaugurated for a second term as governor of Iowa.

January 16.-The contract for the construction of the

SIGNALING TO LADYSMITH FROM FRERE BY MEANS OF THE SEARCH-LIGHT MOUNTED ON A TRAIN.

MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE ARTHUR FRENCH.

(Who won in several engagements with the Boers in the months of December and January.)

New York rapid transit tunnel is awarded to John B. McDonald, whose bids for the several sections of the work aggregate $35,000,000....The Mississippi Legislature elects A. J. McLaurin (Dem.) for the long term and W. V. Sullivan (Dem.) for the short term in the United States Senate; Governor Longino is inaugurated.

January 17.-The Kentucky Legislature elects J. C. S. Blackburn (Dem.) United States Senator; the Iowa Legislature reëlects United States Senator John H. Gear (Rep.).

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT-FOREIGN. December 20.-M. Déroulède appears before the High Court in Paris, insults its president, and is therefore sentenced to two years' imprisonment....The lower house of the Austrian Reichsrath adjourns.

December 21.-The Spanish Chamber of Deputies passes a bill to keep the old budget in force until the new budget is voted on in its entirety....Li Hung Chang is appointed acting viceroy of Canton....The Deutsche Bank agrees to advance to the Turkish treasury 200,000 Turkish liras, to provide for the Ramazan requirements.

December 22.-The French Chamber votes two months' supply and 6,550,000 francs for the exhibition of 1900 ....In the High Court the evidence for the defense in the conspiracy concludes.

December 23.-Sir F. Wingate is appointed Sirdar and Governor-General of the Soudan on the resignation of Lord Kitchener.... The New South Wales Parliament is prorogued.... An edict is issued in the name of the Emperor of China for the arrest of Kang Yu-wei, at present in Hong Kong....A new Austrian ministry is formed.... The French Parliament is prorogued.

December 26.-The president of the Paris High Court begins his speech for the prosecution in the conspiracy trial.

December 27.-Six of the prisoners accused of conspiracy before the High Court at Paris are accquitted and released.

December 28.-Pleas by the defense are heard by the High Court at Paris....The Italian Court of Cassation pronounces the public safety bill valid.

December 30.-The Duke of Connaught is appointed to the command in Ireland, succeeding Field Marshal Lord Roberts.

December 31.-The Emperor and the German Government decide that the twentieth century begins on January 1, 1900....The King of Italy signs an amnesty in favor of all persons condemned in connection with the disturbances of May, 1898.

January 1.-In an address at Berlin the German Emperor announces his purpose to place the navy on a level with the army.

January 2.-The High Court at Paris announces that it decides, by a vote of 148 to 48, that M. Buffet, director of the political bureau of the Duke of Orleans, is guilty of conspiracy, with extenuating circumstances; four others are acquitted.

January 3.-The High Court at Paris finds Déroulède and Guérin guilty of conspiracy, with extenuating circumstances.

THE LATE SIR JAMES PAGET.
(The most distinguished British surgeon.)

January 4.-The High Court at Paris sentences Déroulède, Buffet, and the Marquis de Lur Saluses to ten years' banishment and Guérin to ten years' confinement in a fortified place.

January 9.-M. Deschanel is elected president of the French Chamber of Deputies and M. Fallières of the Senate....The Prussian Diet is opened.... The Newfoundland Legislature is prorogued till February 1.

January 12.-The French Court of Cassation hands down a decision making bull-fighting illegal in France

....Motions are

made in the French Chamber of Deputies to remove the duties on coal, iron, and steel.

January 18.The French Chamber of Deputies votes confidence in the government in the matter of the St. Etienne strikes.

January 19.-A new cabinet is appointed in Austria, with Herr Koerber as premier, the Emperor's aim being to reconcile the differences between the Germans and the Czechs.

THE LATE E. V. SMALLEY.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.

December 21.-The Russian Government grants a reduction during 1900 of the import duty on British coal from 6 to 11⁄2 copecks per pood at Odessa and other Black Sea ports.

December 26.-A treaty between Mexico and China is signed at Washington.

December 28.-A Brazilian warship is ordered to Amapa, in dispute between Brazil and France

December 29.-The British cruiser Magicienne seizes a German steamer, the Bundesrath, in Delagoa Bay, and takes her to Durban, on the ground that German officers and men intending to join the Boer army are on board.

January 2.-Secretary Hay announces to the Cabinet at Washington the success of his negotiations for securing a continuance of the "open-door" policy in China (see REVIEW OF REVIEWS for January, page 39)....The Government at Washington instructs Ambassador Choate to inform the British Government that the United States considers the seizure of American flour at Delagoa Bay by a British cruiser as illegal, and to ask for indemnity for the seizure.

January 3.-Foreign ministers to Brazil protest against differential tariffs against their countries.

January 4.-British authorities seize the German steamer General at Aden and compel her to discharge her cargo....Italy completes the list of great powers replying favorably to Secretary Hay's note regarding the "open door" in China.

January 5.-France orders a squadron to San Domingo to enforce payment of claims.

January 8.-The United States gunboat Machias is ordered to San Domingo.

January 10.-In reply to the note from the United States regarding the seizure of American flour in Delagoa Bay, the British Government declares that foodstuffs are not held as contraband of war unless intended for the enemy.

January 12.-Great Britain accepts the French pro posal to renew the Newfoundland fishing-rights modus vivendi....Germany forbids the shipment of guns by the Krupps to either the British or the Boers.

January 16.-The United States Senate ratifies the treaty for the partition of Samoa.... President McKinley appoints Robert M. McWade, of Philadelphia, to be consul at Canton, China, vice Dr. Edward S. Bedloe, resigned.

January 19.-The British Foreign Office notifies Ambassador Choate that a portion of the seized American cargoes has been released.

THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

December 26.-The Russian Red Cross ambulance leaves for the Transvaal via Berlin and Naples....In a sortie from Mafeking by the troops under Colonel Baden-Powell 21 officers and men are killed, 24 officers and men wounded, and 3 men taken prisoners.

December 27.-The Dunnottar Castle, with Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener on board, sails from Gibraltar....There is a heavy fall of rain in Natal....The Boers assume the offensive and shell the Modder River camp.

December 28.-Spasmodic shelling continues at Modder River; at Ladysmith a Boer shell bursts which kills Lieutenant Dalziel and wounds 7 other officers.

December 29.-The Orient sails from Southampton with 1,275 officers and men for South Africa.

December 30.-A New South Wales battery leaves Sydney for South Africa; the Majestic, with 2,000 troops on board, arrives at Cape Town.

January 1.-General French captures the town of Colesberg, with wagons and stores; Colonel Pilcher defeats a Boer force at Sunnyside Laager, near Belmont, taking 40 prisoners.

January 4.-A Boer attack on the British lines at Colesberg is successfully repulsed.

January 6.-The Boers attack Ladysmith in force, but are repulsed by the British with heavy losses on both sides; the British casualty list shows 15 officers and 135

men killed and 26 officers and 244 men wounded; General Buller attacks the Boer position at Colenso.... General French reports the capture of 70 men, including 7 officers, by the Boers at Colesberg.

January 7.-Several Boer attacks on Ladysmith are repelled by the British.

January 11.-Lord Dundonald, with the mounted brigade of General Buller's troops, advances westward and seizes Springfield Bridge and Swartz Kop, commanding Potgieter's Drift.

January 16.-A part of General Buller's force crosses the Tugela River at Potgieter's Drift; five miles west, at Trichard's Drift, General Warren crosses.

January 17.-In the British advance on Ladysmith Lord Dundonald's troops maintain a successful action against the Boers near Acton Homes.

THE FIGHTING IN THE PHILIPPINES. December 25.-Gen. S. B. M. Young is appointed military governor of the province of northwestern Luzon, with headquarters at Vigan.

December 26.-The Filipino general Santa Ana, with a force of insurgents, attacks the garrison at Subig, Luzon; the Americans, reënforced by marines from Olongapo, successfully repel the attack, several of the Filipinos being killed.

December 27.-Colonel Lockett, with a force of 2,500 men, including artillery, attacks a force of insurgents near Montalban, northeast of San Mateo, Luzon; many of the Filipinos are killed.

January 1.-There is a general advance of the American troops in southern Luzon; Cabuyac, on the south side of Laguna de Bay, is taken by two battalions of the Thirty-ninth Infantry, with the loss of 2 Americans killed and 4 wounded.

January 7.-Lieutenant Gillmore and the party of Americans long held as prisoners by the Filipinos arrive at Manila.

January 12.-A troop of the Third Cavalry has an encounter with the insurgents near San Fernando de la Union; the Americans lose 2 killed and 3 wounded..... General Otis reports all of Cavite province as occupied by General Wheaton's command.

January 17.-Lieutenant McRae, with a company of the Third Infantry, defeats an insurgent force under General Hizon and captures rifles and ammunition near Mabalacat.

OTHER OCCURRENCES OF THE MONTH. December 20.-The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of a State government in California is begun in San José....The main building of Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio, is burned....The American Federation of Labor, in session at Detroit, reëlects Samuel Gompers president.

December 22.-More than 40 school children are drowned in the River Lys at Frelinghem, Belgium.... Sixteen children are killed in a fire at Quincy, Ill.

December 23.-By a coal-mine explosion near Brownsville, Pa., 40 miners are killed.

December 24.-The ceremony of opening the Holy Door of St. Peter's Cathedral at Rome is performed by Pope Leo.... The British steamship Ariosto is stranded off Hatteras, N. C., 21 men being drowned.

December 25.-An earthquake is felt over a large part of southern California....Coal miners and lace workers go on strike in France.

December 27.-The fifteenth Indian National Congress opens at Lucknow.

December 28.-The bodies of the officers and men of the Maine are reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery at Washington.

December 31.-The Rev. Dr. George T. Purves accepts the call to the pulpit of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, in New York City.

January 3.-The bubonic plague is discovered in Manila....At the chess tournament in Vienna Maroczy wins first prize.

January 5.-The mail steamer Iber, of the Great Western Line, sinks off Guernsey; the passengers are saved....A white man is lynched at Newport News, Va. January 6.-The British steamer Glasgow is sunk in collision in Dover Straits.

January 12.-M. Zola is presented with a gold medal as a memorial of his efforts in behalf of Alfred Dreyfus. January 18.-A statue of Daniel Webster is unveiled in Washington.

OBITUARY.

December 21.-Charles Lamoreaux, the French orchestral conductor, 65.

December 22.-Dwight Lyman Moody, the evangelist, 63 (see page 163).

December 23.-Dorman B. Eaton, leader in the civilservice-reform movement in the United States, 76. December 24.-Daniel S. Ford, proprietor of the Youth's Companion, 77.

December 25.-Elliott Coues, the distinguished naturalist, 57.

December 27.-Harry Escombe, former premier of Natal....M. Jules Bapst, late editor of the Journal des Débats, Paris, 69.

December 29.-Rev. Father Sylvester Malone, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 79....Eugene V. Smalley, the news

paper correspondent and writer, 58....Thomas MacKellar, of Philadelphia, author and printer, 87.

December 30.-Sir James Paget, the British surgeon, 85....Eugene Bertrand, of Paris, 65.... Rev. Dr. J. Thomas Murray, of the Methodist Protestant Church, 70.

January 3.-Francis Schnadhorst, from 1885 to 1892 the chief organizer of the British Liberal party, 60. January 5.-Former Surgeon-General William A. Hammond, U. S. A., retired, 71.

January 6.-John Bernhard Stallo, United States minister to Italy in President Cleveland's first term, 76. January 7.-Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn, 62.... Rev. Dr. John Milton Williams, of Chicago, 83.

January 8.-Alfred Edmund Burr, for sixty years the editor of the Hartford (Conn.) Times, 85.

January 9.-Ex-Representative William P. Howland, of Ohio, 68....Gen. Felipe Berriozabal, Mexican minister of war.... Rev. Aloysius Schyns, head of the order of Alexian Brothers in the United States.

January 10.-John Q. A. Hoyt, one of the promoters and builders of the New York elevated railway system, 73....Rev. Dr. George Warren Field, of Bangor, Maine, 81.

January 11.-Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury, who served in the Confederate army, 77....Alexander Williams, a well-known Boston bookseller and publisher, 81.... Earl of Ava (wounded at Ladysmith), 37.

January 12.-Rev. Dr. James Martineau, the distinguished Unitarian divine, 95.

January 13.-Gen. George H. Sharpe, of New York, 71.... Felix Morris, the comedian.

January 14.-Alexander Majors, originator of the pony express in the overland mail service.

January 15.-George W. Steevens, special correspondent of the London Daily Mail in South Africa, 30. January 18.-Prof. Amos. G. Warner, of the Stanford University, 38.